FHA Nears Need for Taxpayer Funds

By

Nick Timiraos

Updated Nov. 14, 2012 9:41 p.m. ET

The Federal Housing Administration is expected to report this week it could exhaust its reserves because of rising mortgage delinquencies, according to people familiar with the agency's finances, a development that could result in the agency needing to draw on taxpayer funding for the first time in its 78-year history.

Such a report would likely set off a political fight over the government's role in housing, as it raises the prospect of billions of dollars being added to the U.S. government's effort to stabilize the...